Aliya Kashaganova is a doctoral candidate at the Chair of Prof. Peter Finke. She conducts research within the SNSF project “Dealing with Institutional Volatility: Food Production, Processing, and Trade in South-Eastern Qazaqstan” focusing on rural entrepreneurship and agricultural transformation in southeastern Qazaqstan. Her research examines how agricultural producers navigate institutional, climatic, and market uncertainties in changing rural economies.

Aliya holds a BA and MA in History from Zhetysu University named after Ilyas Zhansugurov (Qazaqstan). She worked as a junior researcher at the Scientific and Educational Center “Rukhani Zhangyru” and later at the Department of Science and Commercialization at Zhetysu University.